Free Enslaved (Brides of the Kindred Book 14) by Evangeline Anderson Page B

you’re admiring my communications array,” the male said, tapping the
plasti-glass shield with one skeletal finger.
    “Oh,
uh…” Trin wasn’t sure what to say. “It’s…like nothing I’ve ever seen before,”
she said at last. Which was certainly true.
    “It
used to be my link to the beings I served—they are, alas, no more.”
    “That’s
too bad,” Trin remarked, keeping her hand near her blaster.
    “I
had another connection too—one to a dear friend—closer than a brother. But he
died as well.” He sighed mournfully in a way that almost made Trin sorry for
him. Almost.
    “I’m
very sorry to hear it.”
    “Well,
it cannot be helped. People do come and go in our lives sometimes, don’t you
agree?”
    Trin
thought of the big Havoc chained to his cot back on The Alacrity— thought of her decision to let him go when she got
back from doing the deal aboard the Demon’s Eye.
    “True,”
she admitted, her heart feeling heavy for no reason she could really name.
    “But
then…one moves on,” the strange male continued. “One finds new places to
inhabit, one makes new friends. The universe becomes a brighter place—yes?”
    He
smiled and Trin had to keep herself from flinching away from him a second time.
Pealing back those liver-colored lips revealed spit-shiny stainless steel teeth
that were somehow even more grotesque than the exposed brain.
    “Right,”
she muttered, gripping her blaster.
    “Oh,
you won’t need that.” The male grinned even wider and nodded at the blaster.
“It’s quite unnecessary. I’m not here to accost you—I’m here to lead you to our
most estimable leader, Alile vuh B’Rugh.”
    “I
see.” Trin relaxed a little though she kept her hand hovering over her blaster.
“You weren’t with him when I first met him, I don’t think,” she remarked. “I’m
certain I would have remembered you.”
    “As
I would have remembered you, dear
lady.” He bowed again and came up grinning. “As a matter of fact, I am
relatively new here but I have quickly gained the confidence of our fine
leader. You might even say I am his number Two male.” He laughed, as though he’d made a joke. Trin didn’t join in.
    “So
where is B’Rugh?” she asked tightly. More and more she felt she didn’t like
this tall thin male with his exposed brain and steel teeth. As a captain she
had learned to trust her instincts and he gave off a bad vibe. A bad, crazy vibe. Every nerve in her body
shouted, run! But she couldn’t—she
had a deal to make.
    “B’Rugh
is this way—waiting for you in his main receiving parlor. Or as the other
denizens of this fine establishment call it—the Grog Hall.” He swept out one
boney hand in an elaborately graceful gesture. “Ladies first?”
    “I’ll
follow you,” Trin said tightly.
    “But
I do not wish to be rude.” He opened
his eyes wide—the left eye anyway—as though indicating his horror of the idea.
    “Females
don’t expect special treatment where I’m from. We are more than equal to males
so nobody needs to go first,” Trin said brusquely. “You know the way so you
lead.”
    “Very
well.” He nodded amiably enough and turned to sweep down the wide metal
corridor ahead of her. Trin breathed a sigh of relief, glad to have that
strange, crazy gaze off her face at least for a minute. She noticed that her
host—B’Rugh’s number two male as he called himself—was wearing a strange
garment. It was a long, black leather coat which fell from his boney neck to
his black boots which made dull, clanking echoes on the metal floor. The coat
fluttered against his ankles as he walked, almost as though it was alive.
    Weird. Very weird. She
wondered if he was really who he said he was and if he was taking her to B’Rugh
at all? If he’d tried to lead her off into one of the narrow, dark, side
corridors she would have balked. But so far they were simply making their way
down the wide main walkway.
    She did notice, however, that most of